Barça seeks a win to return to Kaunas
The blaugrana are one victory away from the ‘final four’ at the Zalgirio Arena
BARCELONA, 2 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Barça visits Zalgiris this Wednesday at the Zalgirio Arena (7:00 p.m.), in the third game of the Euroleague ‘Playoffs’, with the intention of taking advantage of the first of the three options they have to qualify for the ‘final four’ of the competition, which will take place in Kaunas.
The blaugranas want to repeat their visit to Kaunas and the Zalgirio Arena to be able to fight for a title that has been resisted since 2010. To do this, they have three match balls and two of them will be on the stage of that four-way final. The first, this Wednesday.
With 15,000 souls supporting Zalgiris, Barça will have to reset and not think about coming into this duel with a 2-0 lead in the tie. The green hell of Kaunas can be intimidating, but it is a scenario that the ‘culer’ coach, Sarunas Jasikevicius, knows perfectly well.
“They feel more comfortable at home, they have 15,000 people behind them and for us the most important thing is to match their intensity and desire and go with the idea that you’re going 0-0. If you’re thinking about 2-0 and not giving the maximum, we will return sad to the Palau and with 2-2”, warned the coach, former player and former coach of Zalgiris, in the previous one.
At the moment, the tie saw two different victories for Barça. In the first duel, the Catalans won with great authority (91-69). In the second, things evened out but Barça was also better at key moments (89-81). Now, Kaunas hopes to turn the tables to see his Zalgiris, and not Barça, in the ‘Final Four’.
DATASHEET.
–EQUIPMENT.
ZALGIRIS KAUNAS: Taylor, Butkevicius, Ulanovas, Brazdeikis y Smits –possible quintet initial–; Giedraitis, Lekavicius, Hayes, Birutis, Lukosiunas, Polonara y Dimsa.
BARÇA: Laprovittola, Satoransky, Kuric, Mirotic and Vesely –possible starting five–; Sanli, Kalinic, Abrines, Tobey, Higgins, Jokubaitis and Nnaji.
— ARBITRATOR: Javor, Hordov y Nikolic.
–PAVILLION: Zalgirio Arena.